Home Invasion on Long Island Leaves 2 Dead and One Hurt, Police Say

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ; Angela Macropoulos contributed reporting.

Published: February 4, 2007

Three armed and masked men burst into a house in Suffolk County Friday night, and by the time the shooting was over, one resident was dead and at least one of the attackers may have been shot, the police said yesterday.

A half hour later, two men turned up with bullet wounds at an apartment complex about 15 miles away; one died later at a hospital. In a statement about the home invasion, the Suffolk County Police noted the two men's wounds but did not say if the men were connected to the attack. No one had been charged last night.

The police said that three men entered the home, on Tremont Avenue in Medford, around 11 p.m. Friday and demanded money and drugs. The men ordered a couple who lived in the house to lie on the floor, and were taking their son, Dane Aulak, 22, to another part of the house when the shooting began, killing Mr. Aulak.

What happened next was not entirely clear, but William LaVelle, a lawyer who represented Mr. Aulak in various traffic offenses and who arrived soon after the shooting, said that Mr. Aulak's ''younger brother came to his defense and shot one of the perpetrators.''

He said he did not know who owned the gun, but that the parents and the younger brother were unhurt.

''This is a shock to his family and to me,'' said Mr. LaVelle. ''Dane was a nice young kid.''

About 30 minutes later, the police received a call from the Hemlock Garden Apartments in North Bay Shore saying two men had been shot.

Both men were taken to Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, where one, a 23-year-old man from Riverhead, was pronounced dead.

The second man, a 28-year-old from Rocky Point, underwent surgery for multiple gunshot wounds. The police did not announce his condition after surgery.

The police declined further comment.

Yesterday afternoon on Tremont Avenue, the police and crime scene investigators were still on the scene of the homicide. No one answered the telephone at the Aulak house.

A neighbor, Jason Mones, said that he did not hear the disturbance Friday night, but added that the Aulak family had lived there for some time.